


Cargo

by candy_pop



Category: EXO (Band), Star Trek, Super Junior
Genre: Aliens, Alternate Universe - Space, Gen, One Shot, Outer Space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-05-31 16:49:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19430080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/candy_pop/pseuds/candy_pop
Summary: Leeteuk is an exiled Angosian super soldier who fled imprisonment and now lives as an outlaw.For years he'd been a stowaway, a hitchhiker, a fugitive, but eventually he acquires a serviceable vessel with decent enough cloaking capabilities for mercenary work and black market shipments.One such shipment finds Leeteuk in what he'd previously thought to be dead space, nothing marked there on any quadrant maps he'd ever seen...Past an enormous field of electromagnetic debris is the tiniest little solar system, dim in the blackness surrounding it.Leeteuk never turns down a job.





	Cargo

Leeteuk is an exiled Angosian super soldier who fled imprisonment and now lives as an outlaw.

  
For years he'd been a stowaway, a hitchhiker, a fugitive, but eventually he acquires a serviceable vessel with decent enough cloaking capabilities for mercenary work and black market shipments.

  
One such shipment finds Leeteuk in what he'd previously thought to be dead space, nothing marked there on any quadrant maps he'd ever seen.

  
Past an enormous field of electromagnetic debris is the tiniest little solar system, dim in the blackness surrounding it.

  
Leeteuk never turns down a job.

The system's small star has one lone planet orbiting it, with just one moon. He finds it largely uninhabited, save for abundant plant life and some insects. Upon landing, readings show evidence that some larger, possibly mammalian creatures once lived there, but appear to have long since gone extinct.

Leeteuk had been given a heads up that due to the debris field he would likely be unreachable by radio signal, unable to contact his employers or their clients, so he cloaks his ship and sets out on foot.

He pushes through dense purple foliage, skirting past huge outcroppings of smooth black rocks. As he crests a hill, he stops short and realizes that the ground drops off in a steep cliff. It slopes down into a huge, ruined pit full of upturned earth and twisted metal. It looks like a crash site, and Leeteuk knows something is wrong here.

He makes his way down the steep slope and into the crater, picking through the wreckage which looks days or weeks old. It's obvious that if anyone had managed to survive... they were long gone.

Leeteuk reaches the other side of the crater, which is shallower, and climbs back out without much difficulty. At this point he contemplates abandoning the job, consequences be damned. He has a bad feeling about this place, but he's also a bit curious. He wants to know what happened here.

Almost three kilometers past the crater, the sun now beginning it's descent in the planet's golden sky, Leeteuk smells smoke. He moves as quietly as possible, following the smell to a break in the tree line.

There is a river flowing serenely, and further down the rocky riverbed Leeteuk sees a smoldering pile of what appears to have been some kind of makeshift shelter made of scavenged tree branches. There are items scattered around the area; a blanket, a water filter, a broken tricorder, a radio that's been taken apart.

At the edge of the river there's a humanoid body face down in the shallow water, motionless against the rocks.

Leeteuk is debating whether or not to check the rest of the supplies strewn about the area when he hears a strange gurgling noise, and then a hiccup. He drops to a crouch, scanning the area, but the hiccup turns into a wail -- and he realizes it's a child.

There's a child here.

Leeteuk stands up and follows the sound to the brush further past the camp. He pushes aside the huge purple leaves, and beneath them in the dirt lies a Human toddler. It has burns on its legs and hands, and when it sees Leeteuk it freezes in terror.

There's a shout in the distance, from the other side of the river, and the sound of phaser fire.

Humans aren't welcome in this quadrant, in this environment. They're liabilities at best, spies and thieves at worst. Leeteuk knows that the Kzinti stationed here, his would be clients, won't have taken kindly to the intrusion.

He has a choice to make. He can ignore all this, finish the job he came here to do, and head back to base. Or... he can protect this child and risk having to fight off twenty Kzinti warriors in an attempt to escape, likely angering his employers in the process.

The shouts are growing nearer.

Leeteuk decides he needs a new job anyway.

He picks up the child, bundles it into his arms and sprints back the way he'd come.

There's more phaser fire behind him, but it doesn't seem as if he's being pursued. Ducking quietly around trees and under vines, he hopes they haven't noticed him at all. When he reaches the crater, Leeteuk has to pause to figure out how he's going to do climb down. There's a second group of Kzinti approaching noisily from the east, to one side of the crater. He holds the child tightly with one arm, using the other for balance as he moves down the slope.

Not far from the edge there's a piece of the ship's hull that looks like it could conceal them, and Leeteuk crouches to set the Human underneath it before crawling under himself. He's covered in dirt and breathing a bit heavily, listening for the group above to move away.

The child has been oddly quiet since Leeteuk first picked it up, not returning to its wailing like he'd expected it to. Though he isn't particularly familiar with human biology, he knows it isn't an infant because it can hold itself upright well enough.

The child stares at him in the dim light, and he stares back.

* * *

Sprinting for the clearing where he'd left his ship and gritting his teeth against the pain in his shoulder, Leeteuk carries the child in one arm as he tries to outrun the Kzinti who had spotted him scaling the tall side of the crater.

He's been shot, but not anywhere vital. Phaser fire rings out again and he ducks his head, curling himself around the child.

When he reaches the ship he doesn't wait for the hatch to close before he's lifting into the air, and phaser fire ricochets off the metal hull. The Kzinti have a much larger ship, but it's also slower and at least twelve kilometers away.

They're up and away, out of the planet's atmosphere and rocketing straight into the debris field, unable to waste time going around it. The Kzinti ship isn't pursuing him but some of their fighters might.

* * *

Leeteuk slumps in his control chair when he's finally home free, on a course to the Delta quadrant where he hopes some of his old connections will be of assistance.

The child in his arms is still silent.

* * *

The Human doesn't speak.

Leeteuk decides to call it Chen, after the system where he'd found it. They reach Heva VII and Leeteuk takes care of their injuries and the light damage to his ship.

He could sell the Human, he knows, or just leave it somewhere now that they're out of immediate danger. Find an orphanage or a workhouse or something.

But Leeteuk knows what it's like to be tossed aside, to be left all alone. He couldn't do that to this child.

So they set off for a different system, one where Leeteuk can find more work. Now he's got another mouth to feed.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! i wrote this in 2017, but only ever posted it for a few of my friends to see. i found it recently and thought i might as well fix it up and post it here. hope you enjoyed <3


End file.
